


Scarlet Butterfly

by Lunasticks



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Death, Drama, Gen, Grief, Spoilers for Chapter 2, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-21
Packaged: 2021-03-22 21:48:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30045234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunasticks/pseuds/Lunasticks
Summary: After the first killing and execution, Souda Kazuichi is determined to get as far away from any bloodshed as possible.However, when he stumbles upon Mahiru Koizumi's body in the beach house, and immediately finds himself back in his cabin the second after, he soon realizes it's going to be up to him to save her from dying.No matter how many attempts it takes.- A story about Souda Kazuichi being stuck in a time-loop. -
Relationships: Koizumi Mahiru/Soda Kazuichi
Comments: 11
Kudos: 18





	1. High Hopes

**Author's Note:**

> Heavy spoilers for many parts of DR2, especially regarding Chapter 2.

“Gooooood morning, everyone! Looks like today is gonna be another perfect, tropical day!”

Kazuichi groaned. He still hadn’t gotten used to Monokuma’s morning announcements shaking him out of unconsciousness every single morning.

“Now then, let’s show some enthusiasm and make sure to give it our all today!”

The pink-haired, shark-toothed boy decided to go for the extra five minutes before getting out. Unlike the others, he didn’t have a particularly difficult time with getting his look in order before heading out – just a jumpsuit and beanie – so he had time to spare from not having to style his hair or apply any form of makeup. In return, he got five more minutes in his bed. Five more minutes of not having to come to terms with… this entire situation.

Just a few days ago, Kazuichi had been involved in his first Class Trial. Byakuya had been found dead, and one of his fellow classmates had done it. Accusations, finger-pointing and screaming-matches all seemingly designed around breaking their collective trust, leading up the eventual reveal of Teruteru as the culprit. It was a constant state of not knowing who to believe – a never-ending feeling of uncertainty. Was he even safe? Now that one person had already been killed, there was all the possibility in the world of himself being the next victim.

The images kept flickering through Kazuichi’s mind. Byakuya underneath the table. Teruteru being executed. The look on everyone’s face as they took the lift back to the surface… It was difficult not to get discouraged, just as Monokuma wanted all of them to.

And all of it just kept on going. Now that damn teddy bear of death had introduced some sort of arcade machine to the island. Luckily, both him and his classmate had all come to an agreement to never play it. Well, Kazuichi never was much of a gamer himself, but it was at least a nice way to re-establish a bit of trust amongst one another.

Because if there wasn’t any… then the murders would just continue…

Kazuichi caught himself before he fell deeper into the usual spiral of despair-filled thoughts. He shook his head and jumped out of bed unto his feet. Taking a deep breath, he shouted out loud to himself.

“No point in focusing on the past. Got to think of the present! The now!”

He slipped on his jumpsuit and beanie. Yeah, Kazuichi was feeling alright. He opened the window to the cabin to let some air into the room. Today was going to be an adventurous day, he decided. Kazuichi was desperate for something fun to do. Instead of falling into his usual routine - breakfast, searching for electronic parts / a way off the island, dinner, sleep – he was going to find something to do today.

And luck would turn out to be on his side, as he heard a pair of female voices from outside his window.

“Good morning Chiaki!”

“Ah, hey Sonia!”

Kazuichi looked out the window. As their greetings indicated, Chiaki and Sonia were standing right outside the cabin. He quickly adjusted the blinds so he could still see them without risking being found out.

 _“Miss Sonia!!”_ he thought, stoked to see her this early in the morning. The more he got to look at her, the better his day was. At least, that was the thought-process within his own head.

“My, Chiaki, you look absolutely exhausted! Did you not get enough sleep?”

“Had to beat my high score… Stayed up just a little later than usual…”

Chiaki then immediately proceeded to yawn, confirming that she indeed probably had been up for several hours during the night playing video games.

“Well, I never! This cannot do, Chiaki! You need to be prepared for the day, after all! Staying up the entire night won’t do you any good!”

Sonia placed a hand on her chin, and appeared to be thinking hard, as Chiaki more or less just tried to stop herself from falling asleep whilst standing up.

“Aha!” exclaimed Sonia. “I just got a wonderful idea!”

Chiaki responded with rubbing her eyes. “Mmm… What?”

“Why don’t we go to the beach today?” Sonia excitedly shouted, clapping her hands together. “In fact, why don’t we get together all the girls for a ladies-only beach party! We can do it a little after the sun starts to tilt!”

Chiaki either did not seem to register what had just been said, or she actually did manage to fall asleep standing up. Sonia, seemingly too excited about her new plan for the day, kept going anyway.

“Yes, I shall hurry on ahead and ask the other girls about it! Oh, this is too exciting!”

And with that, Sonia ran off, leaving Chiaki by herself right outside Kazuichi’s cabin. Once he was sure that Sonia was far enough away, he opened up his blinds again.

“Wow, she really is still asleep…” Kazuichi glanced at Chiaki, wondering how she managed to stay standing, then took a moment to stretch. “But more importantly… I know exactly what I’m doing today!”

* * *

“Today, 2:30 PM… Come to the supermarket.” Kazuichi looked straight into Hajime’s eyes.

“Uhh… Wait, why?” Hajime scratched his head, sipping on a glass of orange juice.

“Just… Y’know, discussing the details here would be… bad. Just… 2:30, man. Be there!”

With that, Kazuichi stormed off, out of the restaurant and towards his own cabin, leaving Hajime no time to refuse or say no. If he knew Hajime well, and boy did he ever, he was never one to neglect an appointment. His plan for today was going smoothly thus far.

He kept up his unusual demeanor on his way back to the cabin. He had to stay quiet and not cause a ruckus, otherwise the girls would eventually pick up on him knowing about their plan, and maybe decide not to go to the beach after all.

While he did his best to keep calm on the outside, Kazuichi was exploding with excitement inside his own head.

_“YES! I’m gonna get to see Miss Sonia in a bikini! Oh man, oh man, oh man…”_

His shark-like teeth kept showing themselves, as Kazuichi could not stop smiling. Amid all the uncertainty and distrust between all of his fellow classmates, he finally had something to actually look forward to. It was going to be a tough wait though… How the hell was he going to pass the time?

Stuck in his own thoughts, Kazuichi continued fantasizing about later today, his nose changing between pointing up into the sky and down at the ground as he walked. _“Maybe Sonia’s wearing a really expensive, royal bikini… Maybe it’s a skinny one! Oh man, what if it’s a string bikini!!”_

Kazuichi kept walking, gaze pointed upwards, until all of a sudden…

***bump***

Without noticing, Kazuichi bumped into someone heading the same direction, with their head colliding hard against his chest. He quickly looked down, where his gaze was met by a particular red-headed fellow student of his.

“Jeeeez! Watch where you’re going!” Mahiru held a hand to her head, rubbing the spot she’d collided into him with. She also happened to have fallen completely to the ground, and was sitting while looking up at him.

_“Oh no. Out of everyone to bump into…”_

Kazuichi thought about holding out a hand to help her up, but the photographer quickly pushed off the ground with her own hands instead, before proceeding to wipe sand off her dress.

“God, there’s sand everywhere now…” Mahiru uttered bitterly while trying to get all the sand out, only pausing to glance up at Kazuichi, who was in the process of eyeing up his escape options. He really did not feel like a scolding to ruin his great mood right now. “Jeez, Kazuichi, at least apologize or something!”

“Well, why did you not see me? Maybe *you* bumped into *me*!” rebutted Kazuichi.

“Wha- I was looking at newly taken photos on my camera! What the hell is your excuse?!” Mahiru snapped back at him.

“Then you admit you weren’t paying attention to where you were going either!” replied Kazuichi.

“God, you boys are all the same! Just unwilling to admit when you’ve messed up, just always trying to blame anyone else!” Mahiru was in full scolding mode, pointing her finger at Kazuichi as her heated face turned redder. “Then tell me! What was so important that you couldn’t see where you were going?!”

“That’s… You… It’s not…” Kazuichi desperately wanted to say something but couldn’t make something up on the spot.

 _“And there’s no way I’m telling you the truth…”_ Kazuichi clenched his face, and walked straight past Mahiru, causing her to take a step back.

“Wha- Hey!” Mahiru snapped one last time at him as he walked away from her. God, she was the last person he wanted to see right now…

Kazuichi looked straight ahead for the entire rest of the walk back to his cabin. He wasn’t going to bump into someone else. _“God help me if I bump into Hiyoko now…”_

Thankfully, Kazuichi made it safely to his cabin. He closed the door and collapsed on the bed, not wanting to sleep, but just out of a need to de-stress.

 _“Damnit… Mahiru is the worst…”_ He hit the bed with his fist. _“She’s always, ALWAYS after me, shouting, pointing out every little detail of whatever I’m doing wrong… God, if this killing game really has to continue, can’t she just be the next one to go?!”_

Kazuichi’s eyes widened as he realized what he had just been thinking.

_“No… I didn’t mean that, I just… Damn, I just wish I didn’t have to deal with her all the time... No, not like that, gah!”_

Kazuichi shook his head. He had to think about something else. Focus on later today. _“Just imagine Sonia in a bikini… Sonia in a bikini… Sonia in an expensive, royal, tiny, almost invisible… bikini…”_ Kazuichi wiped a bit of drool off the side of his mouth. He pushed himself off the bed and began stretching in the middle of the cabin.

_“Alright! From now on, we’re solely focusing on later today! Nothing’s going to get between me and the girls!”_

The remaining hours until 2:30 pm seemingly flew by, and suddenly, Kazuichi found himself dashing to Rocketpunch Market to meet up with Hajime in time. After (almost) making it in time, he opened to door to find Hajime already waiting for him.

“Yo!“ greeted Kazuichi.

“Waaah!” screamed Hajime in response.

“Whooooooa?!?” Kazuichi replied. “W-What the heck! Don’t get all pissed off just ‘cause I was a little late!”

“L-Late?” replied Hajime, still in shock at the sudden surprise entrance.

Kazuichi proceeding to tell Hajime the details. How he overheard Sonia making plans with Chiaki, how excited he was, and how much he really wanted Hajime to come with him. The incident with Mahiru was left out. _“…I’ll tell him later. Right now, it’s about the beach girls, baby!”_

* * *

Kazuichi’s spirit had been crushed. Or, rather, burned to the ground and then stomped on multiple times before getting shredded further and then getting crushed by a massive cinderblock.

_“Why Sonia… Why did you choose a wetsuit of all things?!?”_

The reason Kazuichi was experiencing such… heartfelt emotions? Well, as Kazuichi and Hajime had reached the diner, the long wait for the girls was sat in motion. Or well, they mostly just sat motionless, looking out the window. Eventually, they noticed a very tense looking Fuyuhiko outside and went out to speak with him. The encounter was brief, as Mikan and Ibuki also showed up, allowing Fuyuhiko to disappear without Kazuichi even noticing until much later.

As they went inside to wait for the other girls, Hajime suddenly pointed outside once again. Kazuichi turned his head and saw Hiyoko, running away from the beach house. Weirdly enough, it appeared as though she was crying… The girls had told him that she had said no to coming to the beach gathering, so maybe she just regretted not showing up? Kazuichi was honestly fine with it – the less he’d see of Hiyoko and Mahiru, the better.

Speaking of which, Kazuichi was also surprised to hear that Mahiru had turned down an invite for the event as well. I mean, she was usually always up for an event, and something like a girls-only event seemed perfect for her. He spent only little while wondering over her whereabouts before realizing that meeting up with her after their earlier debacle properly would not be a very good idea. So, yeah, he should probably just feel lucky that she did not show up…

And his thoughts did not need much of an excuse to go anywhere else, as the swimsuit-clad girls suddenly started pouring into the diner. First up was Chiaki, who certainly knew how to set the bar high. Akane showed up next, who would have set the bar even higher, if only she had not gotten into a fight with Nekomaru on the way, which had left her with an injury, causing a good amount of blood to be splattered on her face and in her hair. Peko was next, showing up already completely wet after having taking time to swim before the beach meetup. Kazuichi wasn’t paying attention at this point, not even when she mentioned she’d been swimming for three hours around the island. The only thing that mattered right now, was that there was one girl remaining.

Sonia. She was the last girl. This was it, this was everything he had been waiting for. The minutes that had passed so easily earlier suddenly slowed to a crawl, as Kazuichi was left waiting and waiting and waiting…

And then, that familiar creak of the diner door sounded. That heavenly noise that signified that everything Kazuichi had been waiting for would finally come together. All he had to do was take a deep breath, turn his head and-

There she was. It certainly was Sonia Nevermind, standing in the entrance in swimwear, just as Kazuichi had predicted. But… something was off. It took Kazuichi a few seconds as his brain refused to process what was right in front of him. Her hair? No, it still looked as amazing as ever. Her voice? No, still the voice of an angel…

…Wetsuit. A wetsuit. She was wearing a wetsuit. Nothing was on display; nothing was even just slightly revealed. It was all covered up. Kazuichi could feel his head getting heavier as his mind raced to find something positive to think about. He tried desperately to find some satisfaction, some kind of payoff for waiting all this time. He searched and searched… and found nothing.

And this is why Kazuichi was now heading towards the beach house, frustrated and cursing everything in sight.

_“Miss Sonia… I had such high hopes for you!!”_

He paused in his step, waited a second, and stomped his foot on the diner’s parking lot asphalt. He slapped his face a few times.

_“Alright, gotta stay positive, gotta stay positive… Maybe, Sonia is simply starting out with the wetsuit! Maybe she will change later! Yeah, she’s definitely just giving a taste of what’s to come!”_

Full of renewed energy, Kazuichi sat off in motion towards the beach house once again. Truly, it did not take much to get him up in spirits again. _“Alright, I’m just going to grab a parasol or two… A beach ball would be fun… Oh, and some towels! Let’s see, we’ll need how many again?”_ As Kazuichi mentally went through his list of things to grab, he reached for the beach house’s door handle, only to find that the door would not open.

_“Huh… That’s weird. I’m sure it wasn’t stuck before…”_

Kazuichi gave the door handle a few more tries before giving up.

_“Oh yeah, there’s an entrance on the other side as well…”_

He quickly turned the corner of the building and found himself on the side of the building that faced the beach. The sand looked golden, and the water was a perfect shade of blue. The best possible conditions for a relaxing beach get-together. Something to just take his mind off his current situation.

Kazuichi stepped towards the door.

_“Yeah, starting now, no more thinking about the killing game...”_

He placed his hand on the door handle.

_“No more thinking about that damn teddy bear…”_

He pushed it down, until he heard a clicking noise.

_“No more being disappointed about anything that didn’t go to plan…”_

The door slowly creaked open. Kazuichi’s eyes began scanning the room for the things he needed.

_“From now on, I’m going to just relax, have fun… and… and…”_

Kazuichi never finished the thought. As the door swung open to the beach house, it very quickly became clear that something was out of place. First, he noticed the weird smell. Then he noticed the items scattered across the floor. Then that those items had blood on them. Then he noticed that the smell in the room also carried the scent of blood.

It all happened within a few seconds. And it all led to Kazuichi’s eyes landing on her.

A girl, sitting up against the wall of the beach house. She was completely still, as was everything around her, with the exception of the blood, slowly dripping from her head, down her hair, eventually falling into a big puddle that was oozing out from beneath her body.

Inside the beach house was his classmate, the Ultimate Photographer, Mahiru Koizumi. The second victim of the killing game.

Kazuichi forgot to breathe. Forgot to swallow. Forgot to blink. He could only stare blankly at the body on the floor of the beach house. Mahiru, who he had just talked with earlier today, was lying dead on the floor.

Kazuichi held his hand to his head as he the felt the room starting to turn around him. Waves of realization started to hit him. The killing game had continued. Someone had murdered another class member. There would be another trial. Another execution. As soon as everyone else got here, they would know as well. Know that there was no reason to trust one another. And… they’d also know that they would never see or hear Mahiru ever again. They would never get another photo taken by her. They would never hear her voice again.

She was… gone. Forever.

_“No… No way… This isn’t real… This can’t be real!”_

Kazuichi felt tears in his eyes. He felt like he was about to throw up. He tried to take a step back from the body, only to lose balance and having to support himself against the wall. He could feel his hands getting cold as he lost control over his breathing.

_“Mahiru… How could this happen!?”_

Everything within Kazuichi started bubbling up. Anger, fear, sadness, disgust… It all culminated in one final scream, louder than any noise he'd ever made out loud before.

“S-Someone… SOMEONE COME HEEEEEREEE!!!”

As the last of Kazuichi’s energy left his body along with the scream, he slumped to the floor. He couldn’t move. His eyes started to close on their own. His hearing started to fade, and his vision soon followed. He kept his eyes on Mahiru the entire time as the world around him slowly faded to nothing.

Right before passing out completely, Kazuichi managed to think one thought clearly through within his foggy mind.

_“I… I’m sorry… Mahiru… I… w-wish I… could have… apologized… to you…”_

And then, just as all light snuffed out, as all of his senses stopped working and time seemed to come to a halt…

…Kazuichi woke up in his cabin bed.


	2. Square One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kazuichi suddenly finds himself back in his cabin.

Kazuichi felt his back against the soft surface of his cabin bed. He felt the weight of the blanket over his body, which suddenly was not covered from neck to ankle by his trademark tracksuit. The morning sun shined through the window, and the familiar noise of the morning announcement began to play.

“Gooooood morning, everyone! Looks like today is gonna be another perfect, tropical day!”

Kazuichi blinked. Stared up into the ceiling. Then blinked again.

“Now then, let’s show some enthusiasm and make sure to give it our all today!”

Slowly, he sat up, until he was sitting with his back against the wall. His mind was racing as he struggled to understand what was going on.

_“Wh-What… Where… How did…”_

All of a sudden, an image flashed in his head. Mahiru’s dead body, laying in a pool of blood in the beach house. Then everything else came back as well. The horrible smell. The shock of the discovery. How his head got lighter as he lost balance. It all rushed into his head at once.

Kazuichi felt sick. He dashed out of the bed as he held his hands to his mouth. He felt like he needed to throw up. Dazed and confused, he stumbled around the room until he noticed a small trash can in the corner. He got on his knees, grabbed the trashcan, and started coughing for a bit before straight-up vomiting into it.

After he was done, he slumped backwards, sitting on his behind instead of his legs. He quicky wiped his mouth with his arm. He could feel his pulse increase as he attempted to catch his breath.

His eyes quickly scanned the room. There was no doubt about it, he was most assuredly back in his cabin. It was his belongings scattered on the floor; it was his own clothes which he had thrown unto a chair the day before…

A sudden sharp headache forced Kazuichi to hold his hand up to his forehead in response.

_“Argh! Damnit… How the hell did I end up here?!”_

Kazuichi ran through what he remembered in his head. He’d left the diner. He made his way to the beach house. And then inside…

_“M-Mahiru… Fuck, I can’t… I can’t believe it…”_

While he did not completely remember what occurred next, he felt confident enough about his guess.

_“And then I passed out completely… And then… And then…”_

The headache spiked again, causing Kazuichi to cry out in pain.

_“Fuck!”_

His head seemed to throb in rhythm with his pulse. Every heartbeat caused him more pain. Still, in spite of this, Kazuichi nevertheless continued to theorize about how he ended up back in his cabin.

_“Goddamnit… Did they carry me here? After finding me?”_

That certainly was a plausible explanation. After all, either of Akane or Nekomaru could have easily carried him all the way after he had been found. Then, he had simply slept through the entire rest of the day before waking up. It was probably his most logical explanation.

Something still seemed off. Kazuichi could not put a finger on what it was. He just had a feeling that there was more to it. But with his throbbing headache and feeling of sickness only just now starting to die down, he really did not feel in the mood to think too hard about it.

Kazuichi pushed himself off the floor slowly. He glanced at the trash can. Yeah, he probably needed to empty that at some point. He wasn’t feeling it right now, he’d have to put on clothes, find a secluded spot far enough away from the cabins and then rinse it. It would be terrible if the girls noticed… For now, he simply pushed it under his desk and covered it with some spare bed sheets. He didn’t consider if that would actually help keep the smell away, but right now, all he could think of was getting back to the bed.

Kazuichi plopped back into bed, crashing unto his pillow. He could feel his headache slowly getting better, as he rested his body. He tried to brush most of his scrambled thoughts aside.

_“I… Mahiru… Fuck… God, I just… need to… sleep just a… bit more…”_

An utterly exhausted Kazuichi began to close his eyes, his cabin slowly fading out of view. He could feel his breathing slowing down as his body prepared to go to sleep once again.

And right as his eyes had closed fully, right as he stopped thinking, right as he was about to start dreaming…

He heard it.

“Good morning Chiaki!”

“Ah, hey Sonia!”

Kazuichi’s eyes shot open. Something clicked inside his brain, even if he did not quite realize what it was.

“My, Chiaki, you look absolutely exhausted! Did you not get enough sleep?”

His heartrate shot up, even as his entire body froze. The headache from before quickly returned. Sweat started creeping down his back.

“Had to beat my high score… Stayed up just a little later than usual…”

Without realizing it, Kazuichi felt something nag at the back of his head.

_“…Well I never… something, something… have to be prepared for the day… Staying up… won’t do you any good…”_

As he recited what Sonia was saying in his head, he heard her voice outside of his cabin, practically mirroring his every thought a split-second after he had thought it himself.

“Well, I never! This cannot do, Chiaki! You need to be prepared for the day, after all! Staying up the entire night won’t do you any good!”

Kazuichi did not understand what was happening. He could not rationalize with himself just how he knew exactly what Sonia was going to say. He continued, silently mouthing each word to himself out loud, only a moment before she got to it.

_“Aha… just got a wonderful idea… Why don’t we go to the beach today? In fact, why-“_

“-don’t we get together all the girls for a ladies-only beach party! We can do it a little-“

_“…after the sun starts to tilt…”_

Kazuichi forgot to blink. He couldn’t focus on anything other than the conversation happening outside. A conversation he could swear he had heard somewhere before.

“Yes, I shall hurry on ahead and ask the other girls about it! Oh, this is too exciting!”

At last, Sonia’s footsteps could be heard as she ran off, signaling the end of the conversation.

_“How… How did I…”_

Kazuichi blinked a few times. Looked around the room, and then down at his hands. He clenched them into fists and slammed one of them down on the bed.

_“I… How the fuck did I just predict everything Miss Sonia was going to say?!”_

Kazuichi’s breathing got heavier. A sense of unease washed over him. Something was not right.

_“I’m going out of my mind…”_

In what felt like just a few hours, Kazuichi had witnessed both the aftermaths of a murder, and him seemingly being able to predict what people were going to say, without even understanding why.

His mind raced. The headache grew more painful. Kazuichi gritted his teeth. Too much confusion and pain prevented him from wanting to even think about anything right now, let alone an explanation to what the hell was going on.

Kazuichi slammed his head on his pillow once again. _“I just… I just… need sleep…”_

The many thoughts spiraling around his mind was not enough to overpower his complete exhaustion.

This time, he succeeded in closing his eyes and keeping them shut.

* * *

***KNOCK KNOCK***

Kazuichi was woken up by the sound of knocking. Probably on his cabin door.

His eyes opened slowly. Despite feeling moderately better after having slept, he still felt tired and sluggish. At least the headache was mostly gone. He scratched the back of his head before letting out a big yawn.

***KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK***

More noise from the door. Kazuichi wondered for a second if he should just ignore it. He concluded instead that everyone else would probably get worried if he stayed inside all day.

_“Maybe I just need to hang out with some friends…”_

Kazuichi eyed the clock on the wall. 11 AM. He hadn’t slept long but had missed the daily breakfast buffet at the hotel. The others were probably wondering where he was.

Still feeling a bit uneasy, Kazuichi slowly got up and grabbed his jumpsuit. He quickly slid it on as more knocks sounded from the other side of the door.

***KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK***

“I’m coming, I’m coming, just a second!!” Kazuichi was surprised to find his own voice sounding rather raspy and distorted. He noticed that his mouth was feeling dry.

_“Getting something to drink at the hotel wouldn’t hurt either…”_

Sensing that the person outside was getting impatient, Kazuichi quickly reached for his beanie and put it on without adjusting it. He took a moment to shake his head and stretch, as well as give himself one last encouraging thought.

_“Alright… Okay. I’m feeling okay. Gotta find Hajime…”_

Kazuichi’s money was on Hajime being the one outside the door anyways, but in either case, it was probably a good first move. He’d find Hajime, try to figure out both what was currently going on, and what had been going on as he was out cold. Right after having entered the… beach house…

Kazuichi swallowed. Now wasn’t the time for thinking about that. He really needed to care for himself first.

Psyching himself up, he reached for the door handle, and pushed it down. The door slowly creaked open. The sunlight crept into the room, blinding Kazuichi as he heard the person outside the doorway speak.

He blinked a few times. Rubbed his eyes. Slowly, a hazy figure started to emerge. He could immediately tell that it was not Hajime, given that this person was way shorter than him. It was probably Chiaki, then.

Then, the person finally spoke.

“Jeez, Kazuichi, could it have killed you to at the very least show up today?”

It only took the first word for Kazucihi’s heart rate to skyrocket. The headache returned, thumping harder and harder. He could feel himself involuntarily shaking.

The voice wasn’t Chiaki’s. It was someone else. But there was no way. It couldn’t be true.

Kazuichi frantically rubbed his eyes once again. Once he opened them, it only took a few more seconds before he could clearly make out who had been knocking on his door.

“Hello? Kazuichi, are you okay?”

Standing in front of him was his classmate, Mahiru Koizumi.

Looking like she'd always done.

Kazuichi choked up. He wanted to open his mouth. He wanted to scream, cry out, say something. But his body remained frozen in place. He realized his mind was not forming any actual thoughts. His hands felt cold, like the blood inside his body had frozen.

He could only stare dumbfounded at the redheaded girl standing in his door.

The girl whose body he had found in the beach house.

The girl who lifelessly laid slumped up against a wall.

An image that would forever remain imprinted in his memory.

At that instance, everything Kazuichi knew shattered mercilessly to pieces.

Worried at his reaction, Mahiru reached out a hand.

“Hey, uh, are you alrigh-“

Without thinking, Kazuichi took a quick step back away from her, almost losing balance. He leaned against the doorframe. The headache kept pounding, and his hand went to his forehead once again.

Kazuichi swallowed. “I… I saw you…”

Mahiru had a concerned look on her face. “What?” She didn’t understand what was going on.

Kazuichi’s shaking legs finally collapsed, causing him to fall. He sat on the floor as she stared up at her, nearly without blinking.

“You… You were… It… N-No…” There was no way. No way this was real. Something was wrong.

“Kazuichi, I… Look, do you need me to get Mikan?” Mahiru looked genuinely worried about him. Kazuichi would probably had taken note of that, as she only rarely, if ever, acted like that in front of him.

Except for the fact that she was supposed to be dead.

She was supposed to be in the beach house, lying in a pool of blood.

Instead, she was here, moving and talking to him like nothing had happened.

 _“Why… What the fuck is going on?!”_ Kazuichi got up as fast as he could, despite his constant shaking, and grabbed the side of the door.

“Hey! What the hell is -“ was all Mahiru managed to get out as the door was slammed shut, nearly hitting her face.

Kazuichi stared blankly at the door, forgetting to breathe. He heard a frustrated sigh and the sound of Mahiru angrily stomping away.

_“There’s no way… I… I saw her! I saw her! She was dead… she was… dead… she...”_

Kazuichi looked down at his hands.

_“I know I didn’t make it up… I know I saw it… I’m sure I saw it… I… I think I saw it… I…”_

Kazuichi crouched down, hugging his knees as he dropped his head. Tears, formed out of shock, started dropping unto the wooden floorboards below.

_“I don’t know… I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know…”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we've actually made it to the second chapter. That, unfortunately, is nearly a record for me when doing chapter-long fics...
> 
> The story's gonna get updated every 1-2 weeks. Currently trying to look for time and energy to write, which is pretty tough, times being what they are. But I am feeling serious about getting this fic done.
> 
> See you for the next chapter!


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